Running Head: Media-Infused Presentation

Media-Infused Presentation Jacob Rizel Wilkes University

MEDIA-INFUSED PRESENTATION

I was first introduced to Prezi around half a year ago. I immediately started to consider many ways a Media-Infused Presentation could assist me in the classroom. However I had not had a chance to actually create a Prezi presentation until this assignment. Though I have not yet utilized this presentation in my classroom, I am confident that my students will learn from it, and enjoy it.

The first requirement that Gardner gives for attaining a disciplined mind is to Identify truly important topics or concepts within the discipline (Gardner, 2008). The Ten Commandments are certainly not isolated requirements, rather they are categories, or topics. Therefor the very first thing that I did in my Prezi was to identify the 10 Commandments in both their original Hebrew and their English translations. I then went on to reinforce them through a variety of methods, in order to assist my students in remembering the commandments.

Another one of Gardners requirements was to approach the topic in a number of ways
(Gardner, 2008). In my presentation I attempted to include as many different approaches as

possible. I began with a video which presented a mnemonic for remembering the 10 Commandments and their order. I then reinforced the mnemonic with an activity which I created in Smart Notebook, which due to incompatibility issues I presented in a screencast. I also included a game.

The next step was to create a mindset which would be open to synthesis. I started with the 4th commandment, and showed a video which not only stressed the great benefits that

MEDIA-INFUSED PRESENTATION

observing the Sabbath has for ones family life, but it also worked as a starting point. It showed that the commandments are not just obligations, but a way of life, and that they serve as a framework for how we are supposed to lead our lives, both religiously and personally.

I continued with the selection of strategy in the 6th commandment, which forbids murder. On the surface it sounds quite simple, but in truth it is much deeper. This encourages the student to think what the reasoning behind any specific commandment was (maybe number 6 is about valuing human life). Once they realize there is more to it, they can start applying it to the not so obvious, is a drunk driver guilty of murder? Or just negligence?

Finally for the feedback, I concluded by asking the students, if they were given the choice, what would they have chosen as the 10 Commandments, and what would be the reason for their selections.

In conclusion, through this assignment I have seen the ease in which Prezi allows you to combine so many different mediums, to track their paths, and to then zoom back out on the bigger picture. This experience has convinced me that Prezi can, and should, play an important role in promoting the Five minds of the future.

Standards alignment: Being that I am teaching in a religious school, we do not have formal standards that we are obligated to follow. We therefore, for the most part rely on the oversight of whomever our present principal/ Rabbi is.